Sticky Learning Lunches #3: 3 Principles to Know What to Wear When You Are Working From Home

Understand the ‘3 Wardrobe Principles’ to make it easy to know what to wear when you are working from home. Use your time working from home to become the very best version of yourself.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon everyone. We're just waiting for a few people to turn up. There were a couple of minutes early, so I just wanted to get this, get the broadcast going, get you into the room and as those extra people start to arrive, we'll then kick this off promptly at one o'clock. So I'm just gonna put myself on mute. Uh, turn my camera off just for couple of minutes.

Nathan Simmonds:

While we're waiting for those last few to getting, do, make sure that you've got a drink, whatever you need, make sure you're hydrated. The sun's come out in here in the uk, so making sure you've got plenty of water, making sure you've got a pen and pad ready for this. Okay, so a couple more minutes and then we're gonna start. So I was gonna put myself on mute again and I'll be back with you in a minute.

What to wear when working from home

 

Nathan Simmonds:

Coming back in now. Alright, where is that button? There we go. Good afternoon everybody. Really great to be here again, great to be sharing some insights with you and sharing some new concepts to help really support those newly working at home and even some of those people that have been working at home for a while with some different ideas to keep you focused and even the people that are working at home in a crisis to really help keep them focused as well so I can maintain that thinking that's gonna help us get the best possible results. It's great to see you on again.

Nathan Simmonds:

I know we've got some repeat attenders, which is really, really nice to see. Really hope you got value from the previous sessions. And if you haven't seen the previous sessions, they are now up on YouTube. So we will share the links with 'em. If you wanna go back and have a look, that'd be, you know, there's some great value and great content in there that's gonna help continue to support you in a different way using this model we've got, which is the mindset model that we've set up for working and at home. Make sure the right angle there. Good. Everyone drinks? Everyone got fresh iPad? Make sure you've got pen, paper ready to go. Okay,

Nathan Simmonds:

What are we covering today? Today we are gonna be covering the n from mindset, which is about neat. This is about making sure that we're working, um, our wardrobe in the best possible way and making sure that we are, we are dressing for the job that we are doing or the, or the job that we want to be doing while we're in working in this arena and making sure we're bringing that to life mentally as well as physically. Firstly, my name's Nathan Simmons. For those of you who haven't been here before, my name is Nathan Simmons.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm the senior leadership coach and trainer at MBM Making Business matter, which the home of sticky learning. And we are the soft skills provider to the UK grocery and manufacturing industry. I come with over 20 years of leadership experience and some reasonably hard learned lessons around homeworking and also leadership.

Nathan Simmonds:

So these are the ideas. We wanna share these concepts with you so that you can get the best of these experiences and practically apply them in what you are doing right now, immediately applicable concepts that are gonna support you to be the best version of yourself. Okay, so today, neat, the m from mindset. Let's make sure we get that out there for you guys. Number one we've got on here that I've written down is to separate your wardrobe. What do we mean by this?

Nathan Simmonds:

As I said just now, it's about dressing for the job that you are doing. It's about not getting those elements confused. Now you don't go to work dressed in your gym clothes and you don't go to the gym dressed in your work clothes because it's not gonna have the desired effect. 'cause if you're going to the gym in your suit, you're gonna tear your shirt when you're trying to do, uh, trying to use the rowing machine. And if you're going to work in your gym clothes, people aren't gonna take you seriously if you're sitting there in your shorts.

Nathan Simmonds:

So it's really important that we start to understand and separate those elements so that we can mentally, if we need to, depending on our working arena, is put that outfit on. So it helps us to think clearer when we're in that space. So what we need to do is break it into three key areas so that we can help to, uh, to, to focus that attention in the right area. The first is

Nathan Simmonds:

Going out close is the best way to put it is the clothes that we wanna wear when we're going out and enjoying things or maybe going to an event. Now that's a little bit more challenging here at this point in time because we're in lockdown as it were. But when we go back to isolation, one of the key points from isolation was arranging events. So even if you want to do a zoom call with a friend or do a pub quiz dress in the clothes that you would wear, if you were gonna do that, make the effort to bring that psychology and and physiology back.

Nathan Simmonds:

When you put those outfits on the second wardrobe, choice is gonna be your relaxation wardrobe. So how many people here right now, yes or no are meant to be working? Hands up with a yes. Say yes if you are, you are meant to be working right now. I'm one I'm, you can see me working. You got some yeses coming up, Colin? Yes. Thank you Colin. David. Nice.

Nathan Simmonds:

I wanna make this window wider so I can see people's. There we go. How many people are wearing a normally wear a shirt to work and are wearing a shirt? Now let's have some more yeses and nos up there. Are people actually wearing their work clothes? Darren say, yes, Colin, no sports shirt. Okay, is that normal attire for you, Colin, for work or how's that working? At the moment

Nathan Simmonds:

What you may find is when you put the you mixer, no figure your shirt like here, is depending on how you are working and the meetings that you are going to, what you may find is as you put a more relaxed attire and you may start to find, you start to relax more. So you may start to sit as if you are watching television rather than paying attention to a meeting. So you need to be aware of the psychology and physiology of how your brain is working in this space.

Nathan Simmonds:

So when we want to, when we want to make sure that we're doing the right thing, sometimes we have to put the right clothes on to mix and match that. So the first outfit choices are the going out smart and and smart, casual, whatever, going out, out type clothes. The second one is your relaxation, your third one is your work clothes.

Nathan Simmonds:

So what is it you are gonna be wearing to work? What do you normally wear to work? And making sure that you keep the, the, there's a differentiation between those things because like I say, the psychology that goes with that, with that outfit can dictate how you sit biologically in the chair. How you approach a conversation.

Nathan Simmonds:

How many people here then have mixed up their wardrobe? Colin's done it a little bit. How many people are mixing up their wardrobe at this point in time? Yes. Mixing question for you David. Have you found that, you know, depending what sort of meetings you're going to, are you wearing smarter attire for certain meetings if it's a conference call or are you still mixing and matching as you're doing this?

Nathan Simmonds:

Yes. Mixing. Okay, good. Check how you feel physiologically with this and psychologically, depending on the, the, the necessity of the meeting, the seriousness of that meeting, think about actually what you wanna bring to that address code is dress for your day. So dress appropriately to what you have. Uh, why Guys, hold on. It's gonna make that chat box bigger. Uh, come on.

Nathan Simmonds:

Okay, so dress appropriately Good. Think about when we're doing this. So the first thing we want to do as if I'm training on dress smart. Good. So when you're delivering training content, absolutely separate the wardrobe. 1, 2, 3, going out, relaxing, doing work. This is the first thing. The second element we wanna start bringing to this is actually preparing our wardrobe.

Nathan Simmonds:

What do I mean by this? What's one of the first things you do if you are working away from home or you are going to a hotel? What's the first thing you do when you get into that hotel room or one of the first things you do with your wardrobe when you get into that hotel room? Let's see some answers over here. What do we do for those people that work away from home? There should be a fairly quick response. Unpack. Thank you very much Christopher. Absolutely do hang, show up so it's presentable. Perfect. So we're starting to prepare a wardrobe, aren't we?

Nathan Simmonds:

What normally happens is, you know, you full well what's gonna be going on tomorrow. So you are in an alien environment, you get your clothes out and you put them where they need to be. You hang your shirt up so I know where it is. I put my, you know, socks and underwear over here. I put this element here so that the moment I get up I can go to the bathroom, do what I need to do, get dressed in the clothes and walk out the door to breakfast. So we create a set routine when we're in that alien environment and it's the same we need to do with our workloads as well.

Nathan Simmonds:

Prepare ourselves mentally to get out of bed at home and working in this alien environment. Our clothes are ready for us so that we can walk straight into them, put them on, we put the mindset in gear and then we go and do good work. So this is hugely important.